MONASTERY
Rabban Hormizd Monastery
Alqosh · Chaldean Catholic
- Locality
- Alqosh
- Tradition
- Chaldean Catholic
- Type of place
- MONASTERY
- Coordinates
- 36.74915° N, 43.11532° E
- Identity
- Matched to a public listing
A brief history
Cut into the mountainside about three kilometres from Alqosh and some 45 kilometres north of Mosul, this monastery was founded around 640 by the Church of the East and named after the monk Rabban Hormizd. From 1551 into the eighteenth century it was the official residence of the patriarchs of the Eliya line of the Church of the East. After the union with Rome in the early nineteenth century it passed to the Chaldean Catholic Church, for which it remains a prominent monastery.
Saints & traditions
Rabban is simply the Syriac word for monk, so the house is known by its founder’s title rather than by a dedication.